Blue and Gold Illustrated

December 2015 Issue

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? and helped salvage a 10‑10 tie. Smith lamented afterwards that O'Brien's mobility presented greater problems, and the national media be‑ lieved if a reserve quarterback who will never be in the pros could still bring the Irish back in a hostile environment against the nation's second best team, then it merited the right to stay No. 1. Yet the humble O'Brien said Kizer's performance in the 34‑27 win deserves more accolades. "He won the game and showed great poise," O'Brien said. O'Brien's own composure enabled the Irish to have a chance to wrap up the na‑ tional title at No. 10 and Pac‑8 champion USC, which destroyed Notre Dame's 9‑0 season and No. 1 ranking two years earlier. In his first and lone career start at quarterback, O'Brien was named Sports Illustrated's Player of the Week on of‑ fense after completing 21 of 31 passes for 255 yards with three touchdowns in the 51‑0 demolition of the Trojans to seal the national title. Once 1967 rolled around, O'Brien was the backup again to Hanratty, and as a senior in 1968 — when sophomore Joe Theismann was being groomed as Hanratty's replacement — O'Brien tried his hand on defense before settling in at running back. He became a starting halfback with Gladieux, rushing for 314 yards while averaging 4.9 yards per carry and scor‑ ing three touchdowns. He averaged 17.0 yards on his 16 catches (with four more scores) and even threw a 13‑yard touchdown strike to Theismann on a halfback pass in a 21‑21 tie at No. 2 USC to help the Irish finish No. 5 in the fi‑ nal Associated Press poll. That offense's 37.6 points per game output remains the single‑season standard at Notre Dame. THE ROAD TO NOTRE DAME The son of a Navy man, O'Brien grew up near Annapolis, Md., where Navy quarterback Roger Staubach led the Midshipmen to a No. 2 final ranking in 1963. O'Brien dreamed of succeeding Staubach. "I was heading to the Naval Acad‑ emy, but when I took the physical there my eyes were bad, which I didn't even know at the time," O'Brien said. "They said you can never be a pilot with your eyesight, and I wanted to be a fighter pilot because my dad was one. When they told me that, I had no interest in going into the Navy to be just on ships." His relationship with Notre Dame be‑ gan when he met Irish head coach Ara Parseghian at a 1965 dinner in Washing‑ ton, D.C. O'Brien was honored by the Touchdown Club as its top player in the area, while Parseghian was feted as the College Coach of the Year. Vice presi‑ dent Hubert Humphrey was among the guests, and college players such as Staubach and Illinois linebacker Dick Butkus, along with Alabama head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, were also saluted. When highlight tapes of O'Brien were shown during the dinner, Parseghian in‑ vited him to the campus for a visit. Not offered immediately because the Irish were evaluating so many other quar‑ terbacks, O'Brien sensed he was slow‑ played before accepting the scholarship offer from Parseghian a few weeks later. He wasn't aware that among the other

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